Dem
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GOP
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This week's most popular parlor game is guessing who leaked the recording of Donald Trump, in which he talks about having classified information about Iran, to CNN. Fox's Steve Doocy, for his part, thinks the leak came from Trump himself. Doocy's theory is that since Trump thinks the tape exonerates him, he wants everyone to hear it.
There is one small problem with that theory, though. Yes, on Monday, Trump was claiming that the tape exonerated him, and that it was proof that he did nothing wrong. On Tuesday, however, he was singing a different tune. The former president's new story is that he was lying on the recording: "I would say it was bravado, if you want to know the truth, it was bravado. I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents. I didn't have any documents."
This is a very interesting change in course for Trump. His previous "defenses" have all been nonsensical bluster that have nothing to do with the law as it is actually written. This, by contrast, is really the first time he's presented a version of events that, if true, would unquestionably exonerate him of wrongdoing. This hints, in some small way, that he's starting to get scared, and he's trying to dig himself out of the Marianas-sized hole he's dug for himself.
Of course, the government can prove that Trump actually did have documents he wasn't supposed to have, so his claiming it was just bravado doesn't change anything. His latest story also suggests he doesn't really understand the significance of the recording. The reason it's meaningful is not that it proves he had classified documents (that fact is easily proven in other ways), it's that it proves he knew he wasn't supposed to have classified documents. Persuading a jury that Trump knew he was in the wrong is important to the case the government is going to make, and Trump gave the feds that element of their case on a silver platter.
One other thing that reader A.R. in Los Angeles reminds us that we really should have emphasized yesterday: The taped conversation took place at Bedminster, not at Mar-a-Lago. That means there were classified documents at Bedminster. Thus far, there is no publicly known evidence that Bedminster has been searched by the government. And there is certainly no indictment related to activities at Bedminster—yet. But the odds are pretty good that the latter, and maybe the former, are coming down the pike. Maybe that is why Trump is spinning a different version of events right now; he's trying to limit his criminal troubles to Florida. Well, and New York. And probably Georgia. (Z)